I was in a bar with a buddy who cut his finger on a broken shotglass, it was bleeding quite a bit but he got it patched up and the blood was cleaned up (i didn't touch it) and the evening continued. The patchup, however, wasn't that great since he's finger continued to leak a little bit. Before going to bed I noticed I had got some of his blood on my shirt. My question is, am I at risk if he is HIV+? What if I inadvertantly touched the stain on my shirt and rubbed my eyes or picked my nose? How much blood is required in the eyes or nose for an infection? I don't know he's status but I know he's sexually active. Thankful for any answers!

Andy Velez:
KRM, what your question reveals is that you need to know more about the means of HIV transmission. It does not occur in the kind of incident you're concerned about. You were not at risk nor is there any need for testing. HIV is a fragile virus and it's not easy to transmit.

The situation you are concerned about is essentially a bunch of ifs. If the man is HIV+ and if he had been pouring HIV+ blood into an open wound of your own or IF it had gone directly into your eye or IF IF IF. Even IF those things happened it would still be questionable as to how much risk there would have been. But those things DIDN'T happen. So you are worrying for naught. There's no need for testing.

Read the lesson on this site about transmission. You'll find a link to it in the first thread in this Forum. This epidemic is going to be around for a longtime to come so to protect your health and to spare yourself this kind of unneccesary worry it's time for you to be up on the real facts about transmission.

Andy Velez:
I don't know what you've been reading and I cannot account for material you find on other sites. A splash in the eye could potentially be a means of transmission in certain very specific circumstances like in a medical setting or an accident. That isn't what happened to you.

I urge you to stop searching the net for more (dis)information because I can promise you that in doing that you will find material to feed your worst unfounded fears. No kidding.